posted at 7:50 pm on March 3, 2010 by Allahpundit

Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he’s obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson’s brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit…

“The Congressman is looking for development of bipartisan consensus,” Matheson’s press secretary Alyson Heyrend wrote to THE WEEKLY STANDARD on February 22. “It’s too early to know if that will occur.” Asked if one could infer that if no Republican votes in favor of the bill (i.e. if a bipartisan consensus is not reached) then Rep. Matheson would vote no, Heyrend replied: “I would not infer anything. I’d wait to see what develops, starting with the health care summit on Thursday.”

Scott Matheson’s plenty qualified for the job (follow the link for his resume), but it shows you how desperate The One is to win votes in the House at this point that he wouldn’t even care about the optics here. Dropping this announcement on the very day that he’s hosting Matheson’s brother to twist his arm on O-Care? What’s next? Televising the bribes he’s been making to inconvenient Democratic primary challengers? Put the graft on C-SPAN, Barry!

Oh, did I mention that Stupak’s more convinced than ever that the Senate bill, as is, is dead dead dead in the House? If they can’t figure out a way to “fix” Reid’s bill before asking the House to vote on it — which may be procedurally impossible — then it’s finito. Unless Obama can scrounge up some more federal judgeships, I guess.

Jim Matheson is in Utah. Even though a Democrat, he will vote no. If he wants to get re-elected in November, he will vote no.

slp on March 3, 2010 at 10:51 PM

Besides Health Reform & Tax and Cap Matheson’s voting record is very liberal. His district, though huge geographically, is gerrymandered for the liberal SLC vote. He’s hoping to lose the southern/rural areas after redistricting resulting from the 2010 census when they add another seat. Unfortunately his seat is pretty safe no matter how he votes and will be safer in 2012.

Hey, you guys have it all wrong. This nomination is just a coincidence.

I live in Lake Co., NW Indiana, just a stone’s throw from Daleyland, where our one-party Demos do their best to emulate the real pros up in the Enchanted Kingdom. And I can tell you this kind of coincidence happens around here all the time.

This country is filled with weak spineless gelatinous sheep willing to allow this constitutional enemy to enact his progressive agenda and destroy the nation which has been built with the blood and treasure of our forefathers and our children, when is enough enough.

Scott Matheson senior was one of the most loved politicians Utah has ever had . Everyone I know who ever worked with him on public issues or in the practice of law developed great respect and admiration for Governor Matheson . The doors of opportunities were flung open for the the sons but they had to walk through them and perform . Representative Matheson will vote his conscience and will not be swayed by this one bit . Utah is not Chicago . The insinuation of a quid pro quo is an outrage . The White House goons were dumb enough to try it with Joe Sestak . There is no way in hell the Mathesons will tarnish that good name with appointment games . If that was really the intention of Obama , he is is more effing retarded than Rahmbo .

Jim Matheson is a great, down to earth speaker. Certainly, his Dad was much loved and respected in Utah. Unlike our former mayor the rock anderson. HOWEVER, Jim voted for nanci pelosi (I know that isn’t how you spell her name – disrespect) to be speaker of the house and I consider her the most unethical, corrupt speaker in history. There should be more investigation about the tax break for her husband’s business. But no, no one will say anything. I think she knows where all the bodies are burried.
We’ll just see if he votes for this boon doggle and what excuses he uses. If they have enough votes, they will let him off. There is another young man running for his office named Reid Walter. He looks promising.

As someone else pointed out, the nominee is the type of person that you would expect Barry to nominate.

The beauty of this mess is that thanks to Barry’s mishandling of the nomination, now the brother will have to vote against BarryCare in order to prove to his constituents that he can’t be bought. And the Senate Republicans have ever reason to stop this nomination in it’s tracks because of appearances.

For a battle/war analogy, how about Napoleon’s march on Moscow? The Russians opened all the prisons, burned the city to the ground, and left Napoleon’s army to straggle back to Paris in the Russian winter. He lost something like 90% of his army.

I live in Congressman Mattheson’s district. After reading that headline my immediate reaction was that this will absolutely lock him into a NO vote. If he votes YES at this point he’ll be run out of Utah on a rail regardless of how plugged in his family is.